Conventional flooring planks used as floor boards are made of a wood or similar substrate material with a bamboo face layer. Other flooring planks are made of 100% bamboo fibers. These bamboo flooring planks are formed by sheets of bamboo fibers, wherein the sheets are laminated together to provide a sturdy, solid bamboo plank. One problem experienced by these conventional flooring planks is that the bamboo and wood or similar materials absorb moisture at different rates thereby creating a moisture imbalance in the flooring plank. The moisture imbalance can cause the flooring to cup, buckle, expand, and contract over time to levels that are generally unacceptable. As a result, the flooring planks of the prior art often are not able to remain flat during or after the manufacturing process or after installation of the planks to form a floor. These flooring planks are also susceptible to surface cracks, known as checking, which can affect the appearance and durability of the flooring planks over time.
Bamboo is a fibrous material that has a longitudinal grain. Some conventional flooring planks are solid bamboo, but they break relatively easily due to layers in which all the bamboo fibers are aligned in the same direction along the length of the plank, including along the edges. The formation process of these flooring planks includes machining the edge portions to form a locking system, such as tongue and groove or glueless interlocking systems that have thin portions. These thin portions are not sufficiently strong and they can be susceptible to breakage along the grain. As such, when an installer places two flooring planks together side-by-side during installation, the pressure on the engaging edge portions can cause one or both edges to break or crack. Such breakage and cracking creates unusable flooring boards, or unusable portions of the floor boards, thereby creating unwanted waste.